“Basically, the contractor felt they weren’t making any money, they couldn’t continue to lose money at that price,” Youngstown Public Works Director Chuck Shasho said.

And that meant the bids shot up 40 percent.

What had been a $2.1 million dollar contract ballooned to over $3 million.

Mayor John McNally says there’s no way the city was going to pass that on to residents.

“In the past year, we’ve increased the sanitation fee to help cover the cost of additional demolition projects in the city of Youngstown,” McNally said. “So we were not really looking to put this on the backs of the tax payers.”

But someone has to collect the garbage, so starting next month, it will be done by city employees. Rates will not change for customers.

“We looked at all our costs and it turns out we can make this happen,” Shasho said. “And we feel we can make this happen for about $700,000 less per year including all the expenses associated with it.”

That means the city will buy 8 new garbage trucks, at a cost of 2 million dollars. Drivers will be hired. McNally says they’re hoping former Waste Management drivers will apply.

“I think the last time the city was in the sanitation pickup business was probably 25 or 30 years ago. But like I said before, our staff has really attacked the challenge,” McNally said.